The integration of Information Communication Technology (ICT) into contemporary society
and business operations is observed as a clear reality in Namibia. While Namibia faces one of
the typical hurdles of developing nations, lack of a skilled knowledge workforce, literature
presents a contrasting face of ICT investment in the country, in particular the financial services
sector. This sector is considered a critical sector in the Namibian economy, embracing global
trends while boasting world class ICT infrastructure. This is despite the sector struggling with
a shortage of expertise. The situation in Namibia’s financial sector thus warrants a critical
review of knowledge development practices as research shows. As literature explains, the
financial institutions in Namibia are dependent on expertise from parent companies in the South
African financial sector. The result is a need to identify means to develop the knowledge of
Namibia’s workforce in the banking sector.
Although there is evidence from literature to suggest that ICT can be used to create a skilled
and knowledge based workforce mainly due to the promise of cost savings, and convenience,
there exists a critical gap in literature on the adoption of ICT for knowledge development in
the Namibian financial sector. This gap in knowledge as well as the high investment in ICTs
in the banking sector pose a problem that the research aimed to address. This study explored
the adoption of ICTs for knowledge development activities in the banking sector of Namibia
identifying the perceptions and factors influencing its adoption for knowledge development
purposes. Although adoption of ICT is influenced by various factors, this study focused on a
specific factor, namely the impact of perceptions on ICT adoption. ICT adoption models such
as the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) or the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) and
more recently the Unified Theory of Adoption and Use of Technology (UTAUT) argue that
the perceptions of users are fundamental determinants for the adoption of the ICT. Driving,
thus, the need to understand the views of users of the ICTs in banks in order to understand the
potential it may yield in knowledge development. The study adopts the Activity Theory (AT)
as the means to uncover and clearly interpret the perceptions of banking staff, through its
theoretic underpinnings of naturalistic investigation and beliefs of “intentional human-action”.
This study thus set out to explore the perceptions of banking staff on the use of ICTs in
knowledge development and identify the critical factors in their adoption of ICTs in the
process.
Drawing from the Activity Theory the investigation used a multi-case qualitative study that
used semi-structured interviews that were administered on twenty-three respondents from three
of the biggest banks in Namibia (cases). The respondents comprised of managerial and nonmanagerial
staff with the three cases chosen based on their ties with South African banks. The
findings show that all three Namibian banks have advanced ICT infrastructure which they have
managed to adopt for knowledge development purposes. The Management of the banks in all
three cases were of the belief that the use of ICT supports knowledge development. Nonmanagerial
bank staff in all three cases likewise have a positive perception about the use of
ICT for knowledge development purposes. However, key concerns about the development of
ICT driven knowledge development initiatives which could affect adoption of the ICTs were
expressed by the non-managerial staff. These included, management support, consultation in
the development phase of the knowledge development initiatives, integration of knowledge
development strategies into the staff processes and increasing awareness activities among the
staff. The recommendations indicate a need for the institutions to drive knowledge management
in general in the institution, which will in turn help foster knowledge development initiatives
fully. Another recommendation concerning the design of knowledge development initiatives is
the need to involve the targeted staff more fully. Yet another strong recommendation was the
need to blend knowledge development initiatives into the work processes of staff and ensure
active support by management. / Computing / M.A. (Computing)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/22829 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Gandanhamo, Joseph Fungayi |
| Contributors | Buckley, Sheryl |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | 1 online resource (xii, 314 leaves) : color illustrations |
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